The field of the invention is that of surge protection systems and the invention relates more particularly to systems having solid state surge protection elements.
Solid-state surge protection systems conventionally employ a surge protection device having a semiconducting element between a pair of electrodes. This element is arranged in the circuit to selectively conduct electrical energy between a portion of a telephone circuit and ground, for example, in the event the circuit experiences an electrical surge as a result of lightning or short circuit or the like in the circuit, thereby to protect electrical components connected in the circuit from damage due to the surge condition. On occasion, the circuit will experience an electrical surge which results in destruction of the semiconducting element so that the circuit components would not thereafter be protected against subsequently occurring electrical surge conditions. Accordingly, the conventional surge protection systems typically incorporate means tending to move the electrodes into electrical engagement with each other following destruction of the semiconducting element, thereby to maintain a short circuit condition between the electrodes to protect the circuit components against subsequently occurring surge conditions until such time as the semiconducting element is replaced. Frequently, however, difficulty is encountered in establishing and maintaining the desired short circuit condition between the electrodes following destruction of the semiconducting element. It would be desirable to arrange the surge protection device in a surge protection system to provide more assured protection for the circuit components by more rapidly establishing the desired short circuit condition on occurrence of a substantial electrical surge in the circuit.